The first piece of the New York Yankees puzzle in the upcoming offseason fell this week, the signing of first baseman Anthony Rizzo. But the job is far from done for out-of-contract general manager Brian Cashman.
Indeed, the next target of the Bronx Bombers is certainly to repatriate outfielder Aaron Judge. The return of Rizzo will do no harm at this level.
However, whether the Judge is back or not, there are other points that need to be addressed, starting with the status of Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The latter is clearly not doing the job at shortstop and he would be on the trade market, according to Jon Heyman.
This makes sense since Oswald Peraza can now take the job and Anthony Volpe is knocking on the door. Also, a star signing at the number six position is not ruled out.
The names of Gleyber Torres and Josh Donaldson are also surfacing in terms of a possible trade. It’s that there is a surplus of infield players in New York.
In Torres’ case, his name has already been involved in negotiations with the Miami Marlins to acquire the services of pitcher Pablo Lopez. This avenue would still not be set aside. Other teams, including the Seattle Mariners, with midfield needs would also be interested in acquiring Torres through a trade.
As for Donaldson, Cashman will have to work very hard to get another GM to eat without paying some, if not all, of his salary. The veteran third baseman is still going strong defensively, but no longer follows the parry at bat.
Ultimately, assuming Judge is back in the Bronx, there’s still a hole to fill in left field. To achieve this, the Yankees would be interested in retaining the services of Andrew Benintendi. However, some would doubt the outfielder’s interest in returning to the striped uniform. In this case, he leaves under other skies, the options not missing in the outfield.
All this to say that the options are many for the New York formation, but the work package will be very important for the staff in the coming weeks.
